‘Sister Wives’ Kody Brown’s Family Refused Entry At Mormon Museum

Kody — I had to sympathize with you, when you and 15 of your children were blocked from seeing the Mormom museum in Carthage, Illinois by the director, just because you’re polygamists, on this week’s episode of ‘Sister Wives’. That was so wrong!

Sister Wives Kody Brown -- I may not agree with you taking four wives, but I say, live and let live, and I felt sorry for your family — especially your children when you were refused entry to a Mormon museum because of your lifestyle. It happened during a grueling family trip — it could hardly be called a vacation — to Nauvoo, Illinois, the birthplace of Mormonism.

Kody and his four wives, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn, endured three days of endless driving for 15 to 16 hours in two giant RVs to get from Las Vegas to Nauvoo. With 15 children on board, including several extremely reluctant teenagers, every pitstop on the trip took an hour — not 15 minutes — and Kody had the biggest meltdown we’ve ever seen on the tv series.

Sister Wives Kody Brown’s Epic Meltdown

Kody, we learned, you need a lot more than the four hours a night of sleep that you were getting on this trip or you get majorly cranky. “I try to rotate and spend time with all my wives,” you said, explaining your exasperation with the RV setup. “I hate that word ‘rotate,'” complains Robyn, who should be used to the idea of rotating since she did marry Kody, who already had three other wives.

“I was ready to meltdown because I was too exhausted to sit here and try and delegate. I wanted to bark orders and have them obeyed,” Kody said. ” I think ‘obey’ is a four letter word”, Christine, wisely told you off.

“I needed to stop and get everybody out of my face,” Kody complained. Hey Kody — you were the one who wanted to take 21 people in two RVs on a three-day marathon drive.

Wisely, Kody, you realized before totally letting loose that you needed a time out. “You’re kind of at a point where you think losing your temper can do a lot of emotional damage, so I just wanted to call on God to help me maintain a decent disposition,” said Kody – which was definitely a good idea.

Violent Beginnings For Polygamy

The Brown adults are all excited to go back to Nauvoo, where founders of Mormonism Joseph and his brother Hyrum lived and were later murdered because of their commitment to polygamy. Joseph believed he was commanded by God to have plural wives. Apparently, he ended up having 33 wives.

“He did a fine job of it, but I’m not interested in that big of a task,” Kody admitted.

The family is all freaked out when their tour guide in Nauvoo, JosephJohnstun -- a non-polygamist Mormom — tells them that 12 of Joseph Smith’s wives had other husbands — in other words, “brother husbands.”

The whole family is upset to hear about how Joseph and Hyrum were basically lynched by a prejudiced mob in Carthage, because they were polygamists.

The Brown Family Faces Prejudice

How ironic, that Kody and the Brown family encounter prejudice — not deadly of course, but prejudice, just the same, when they are in that very town. Also, it turns out that Robyn’s great, great great grandfather – John Sullivan Fullmer was the lawyer for Joseph Smith and Christine’s great great great grandfather, WilliamAdams, watched some of the mayhem involved in the episode. The Browns’ polygamist roots, go back a long way.

How sad, that a museum director would deny entry to a museum because he doesn’t approve of the Browns’ religious beliefs. That is so disappointing in a country that prides itself on being accepting of all peaceful people, despite their race, sex, ethnicity or religious beliefs.

“Once in a while, it’s made very clear to us that we have prejudice against us, ” says Janelle. “It’s just me and I’m accepting of other people ( she is) and it hurts.” It does.

Kody Brown — Why He’s More Committed To Polygamy Than Ever

Kody – you ended the episode boldly re-affirming to us all that “I believe Joseph Smith was inspired by God to have plural wives. Absolutely.”

After seeing the jail, where Joseph Smith was shot and bayonetted in a violent death, you wisely say, “When I’m feeling sorry for myself because my wives are treating me like a ping pong ball I realize so many others have sacrificed so much so I could live in plural marriage in peace.”

Well, no matter, how I or anyone else feels about your polygamist lifestyle, it was wrong for your family to be judged and dissed on your vacation. What do you think, Hollywoodlifers? Do you agree or should the Browns have been refused entrance at the museum? Let me know.

View Comment

Caitlin

Posted at 10:28 PM on October 2, 2014

Joseph and Hyrum were NOT lynched for being polygamists,they were killed for ordering violence on non-mormons. The destruction of the nauvoo printing press(non Mormon) because they were going to print stories about Joseph Smith for one.They beat men who came around,who weren’t polygamist Mormons.

And the statement that Mormons don’t do polygamy is a poor defense.Go look up their Doctrines and Covenants section 132.Celestial marriage (which every temple married Mormon has agreed to) IS plural marriage. Oh and Joseph smith’s first wife Emma is going to hell unless she agrees to let her husband ‘marry’ 16yr old Fanny Alger and 14yr old Hellen Mar Kimball among others.Go look it up!

Correction. They aren’t “Mormon.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or what the media calls “the Mormons” don’t practice polygamy and haven’t since 1890. There were many sects that broke off from the original church due to the fact that the Lord commanded that the practicing of polygamy be ended. And The Browns, from what I understand, belong to one of those. The sects that are in charge of taking care of some of the Church history sites in IL and surrounding areas aren’t even part of the original Church. If you want to know about the Church go to sites that contain actual information such as LDS.org or Mormon.org where you can ask any questions that you are burning to ask.

They were not denied access because they’re polygamists. They were told they could enter without the camera crew, and they refused. Then they rewrote it to look like there was prejudice. Just like they edited the recent episode with the woman saying “I hate them” to look like she was talking about the Browns when in fact she’d been asked about the Jeffs case.